Mural: Kitchen Chickens

Mural and Faux Finish: Asian flavor

It isn’t often I get to do a style like this in the desert!  A nice change!

 

 

 

 

Faux Finish

Before and after

 

Mural: Birdhouses

 

 

The combination of stencil and freehand worked well, we thought!

Faux Finish:Dining room wall

 

Faux finishes can really show off a space!

Mosaic: Bird bath

This is another “unicorn”: a project that has been thought of and planned so long it has become a mythical creature.  But the unicorn has been sighted!

My husband had made a bird bath when we first moved in…closer to five years ago than four.  I had always wanted to dress it up, but just never got around to it.

Artists save things.  We save them because someday we will NEED them.  Yes.  NEEEEEEDDDDDD them.  Like all these tiles I have moved probably three times.  Aren’t they delicious???

 

 

Once it was all filled in, I went to grout it.  This is where I broke a cardinal rule of big projects: never try out a new material!  The Home Depot guy suggested nonsanded grout because of the glass tiles.  I had a few other things waiting to grout, so I did them too.  Like this little treasure chest.

The chest came out ok, but the nonsanded grout was more like playing with toothpaste than what sanded grout feels like (more like mud). 

On my other small projects, it cracked.

 

 

Here is the finished bird bath.

From another angle.

Some of the grout wiped away when I cleaned the tiles–I think it was because the glass is so much more shallow than regular ceramic tiles.  There wasn’t much thickness to work with.

 

I am thrilled that it is done, and I get to see such lovely colors and sparkles of light everyday.  I wish the grouting had gone a little better, but I have to remember half of this will be underwater, and I am pretty sure the birds will be fine with it!

 

Featured Music: Florence and the Machine

Playing on my ipod today–Shake it out!

Mural: Patio area

This was an outdoor patio area with a fireplace.

Mural: Southwest scene

The furniture suggested the design in this showroom.

Colored pencil: Fishy friends